


Let's Watch the Rain as its Fallin' Down

by parttimewhale



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Comfort fic, Established Relationship, M/M, Thunderstorms, and im sorry, let galo be HELD, this is very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24973597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parttimewhale/pseuds/parttimewhale
Summary: Galo and Lio are awoken by a loud thunderstorm. Lio is a bit surprised by Galo's reaction to thunder
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 1
Kudos: 115





	Let's Watch the Rain as its Fallin' Down

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by a thunderstorm that was so loud it shook me awake and i thought i was about to die

_Crash_

Galo gasped sharply as eyes shot open; his whole body shaking from the loudest clap of thunder he’d ever heard in his life. Distant thunder still rolled but he couldn’t hear it over the pounding in his ears. He curled over onto his other side and started raking his hands through his hair, trying to stop his hands from shaking. He hadn’t had a panic attack so violently before and it made his chest hurt with how hard he was trying to keep it together.

Lio sat up next to him, awakened by the storm as well. He was trying to keep his breathing even, as any sane person would when they were woken up in the middle of the night from a thunderstorm. Lio huffed out a quick “Some storm, huh?” waiting for a quip from Galo that never came. When he put his hand on Galo’s shoulder he could feel just how hard he was shaking.

“Galo. Galo, wake up. Galo.” he said while gently shaking the man next to him. He was so tense; like a live-wire was lit under his feet. Galo turned his head around towards Lio, breaths quick and uneven, tears visible on his face from the low light coming from their bedroom window.

“Galo? Hey, you’re okay. It’s okay, I’m here.” Lio started gently saying as he pulled Galo into his arms, resting his boyfriend’s head on his chest, where his own heart was beating a mile a minute. He started rubbing his hands up and down Galo’s scalp and over his shoulders when he felt those familiar strong arms wrap tenitavely around his back, fingers gripping tightly into his t-shirt around his shoulder blades. Lio began making circular motions with the hand in his hair, repeating “I’ve got you, I’ve got you”s and “You’re okay”s.

One moment it felt like Galo was starting to calm down, and the next moment Lio heard him start crying and felt his chest get wet from tears. He kept moving his hand along Galo’s hair in calming motions but then Galo started sobbing so harshly his breaths came out ragged and quick, and Lio tried to lean back to try to see Galo’s face but Galo just pulled him back closer and crushed his face against Lio’s chest.

“Galo. Baby, you have to calm down or you’re going to start hyperventilating.” Galo just kept sobbing, their bodies both trembling with how hard he was shaking.

“Baby, look at me. I’ve got you,” Lio said as he started peppering light kisses onto Galo’s forehead. He shifted so he could move down Galo’s face, following the teartracks along his cheek; and Galo let him this time.

Galo’s breath shuttered as he started taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He inhaled and exhaled deeply a few times before he looked up at Lio and brushed his lips against Lio’s in a gentle kiss. He pulled back and rested his head back down onto Lio’s chest, still shaking but his breathing was starting to even out and his crying had calmed down.

“Can you talk?” Lio asked. Galo shook his head. Lio started rubbing his back again and said, “That’s alright, baby, you don’t have to talk right now. We can wait until you’re ready,” Lio kissed his forehead again and rested his cheek against the top of Galo’s head.

“Can I tell you a story from today?” Galo nodded. “I was talking to Meis and Guiera earlier; we’d walked out onto the balcony at the station and Guiera made a comment about how beautiful the day was. It was a little breezy, and there were a couple of clouds here and there. Almost without missing a beat Meis sniffed the air like this-” Lio did a few dramatic sniffs that made Galo‘s shoulders hitch with slight laughter, “and he looked at us and said ‘It’s gonna rain.’. Gueira and I just kind of looked at him. I asked ‘How can you tell?’ and, I shit you not, he looked off into the distance and said, word for word, ‘I can smell it.’ Like, I’ve heard that southerners have that weird thing where they can sense weather changes but oh my God I really didn’t believe it until that conversation.”

At this point, Lio’s random story of his two former generals had distracted Galo enough to where he had almost completely calmed down. Lio could still feel light tears through his shirt and his heart was still rapidly beating against his own chest, but other than that, Galo was definitely doing better.

“How you doing, baby. You alright?”

Galo let out a sigh. “Yeah,” he croaked out. “I’m better now. Thank you.”

“Of course. It’s my job to help wherever needed,” and he leaned back down to give Galo another kiss. When they pulled apart he said “Can you talk about what happened? Do you want to?”

Galo leaned his face into Lio’s throat, just breathing him in. There was a moment of silence before Galo adjusted his face and spoke quietly, “I’ve always been scared of thunderstorms. I think it kinda started with this one time right after my parents died, when I was living with-“ he cut himself off. Galo’s fists tightened in Lio’s shirt and he felt Lio’s own hands tense around his shoulders. He took a deep breath before continuing, “With...with Foresight. He just had a one-bedroom apartment so I was sleeping on his couch. It was right next to a window, so I could already hear the rain. I think I’d just fallen asleep when the loudest clap of thunder woke me up. It scared me so bad I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I wanna say that was the first time I’d ever had a panic attack before.”

“What’d you do? Did you try to go to him?”

Galo chuckled to himself, almost bitterly, “Yeah. I did. But his door was closed and he didn’t come to open it, no matter how much I knocked.” Lio’s whole body tensed. “I pretty much gave up after about ten minutes. When I asked him how the storm didn’t wake him, he said that he was just a heavy sleeper, but now I’m starting to think that that wasn’t true. It happened pretty much anytime a thunderstorm happened and it got to the point where I knew he wasn’t gonna open that door. So, I just did what I always do: grin and bear it. But when you start associating thunderstorms with loud noises and loneliness it starts to take a toll on a kid.” He raised his gaze to look into Lio’s eyes.

“Galo…. I’m so sorry.” Lio’s voice was low. He moved one of his hands off of Galo’s arm and up to lightly cup his face. “I had no idea you were so affected by storms like this.” He paused to really consider his next words, eyebrows pulling inwards slightly in thought. “Or why they would affect you like this. Does anyone at Burning Rescue know?”

Galo turned his face slightly to kiss the palm that was cradling his cheek. He looked back up and said “No way. They’d never let me live it down that the Great Galo Thymos was afraid of a little rain.” He was usually okay with storms during the daytime, so he was able to hide it pretty well if there was ever a bad storm while he was at the station. Sure, he’d tense up at the thunder, but pretty much any person he’s ever met--aside from Meis. Galo thinks it's a Texas thing. Lio doesn’t disagree--is usually freaked out by thunder. It’s just when its the middle of the night and you and your boyfriend are dead asleep and it just suddenly sounds like someone crashed their cars right in front of your face and you can feel your whole apartment building shake with how much force is dropped from the sky and-

“Galo? Stay with me, honey. You’re alright.” Lio started petting his head and Galo practically leaned into the touch. “Being scared of thunder is totally normal; especially given the circumstances on how that fear was brought around. I’m positive if it ever comes up that the team will understand. They all knew how much Foresight-” Lio hated wasting his words on the man than never even gave Galo a second thought “-meant to you at the time. Something like that isn’t easy on a kid in the first place; let alone a kid that had just lost so much and just wanted some comfort.” He paused to smooth out the hair on the nape of his neck--it’s grown a bit; it’ll need to be shaved back down soon-- and placed a gentle kiss between Galo’s eyebrows.

“Plus they’re your family. If they have a problem with it they’ll just have to go through me. I am the fearless leader of the notorious Mad Burnish after all.”  
Now that made Galo chuckle. He snuggled back down and said, “I’ll keep that in mind, sweetheart.”

“Good.” Lio tilted Galo’s head up and kissed him again before they laid back down fully. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah,” he whispered into Lio’s collarbone. “I’ve got you.”


End file.
